"We trained traditional healers how to spot the symptoms of the plague," says [medical anthropologist Mary] Hayden, who now works at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. "We gave them cellphones with the hospital's number programmed into it. And we gave them bicycles so they could help get people to clinics."

The suggestion that the government can require religious institutions to perform a marriage ceremony for anyone is a bogeyman, a phantom worry. . . . The government must respect religious beliefs, and should not compel a person to perform an act affecting that person’s body that is inconsistent with that person’s beliefs. But that does not imply the religious can attempt to control the actions of others.

Vale said he realized he could take this a lot further than just a quick hello or quasi psychic sketch. He admits he could have gone full on con man and tried to act like he actually knows these people or their friends . . . For example, Vale said during the production he saw an account for a 15-year-old girl who tweeted that her parents were away for the weekend.

Vibrations and an uneven base are the causes of a "possessed" statue moving on its own. You can exorcise this spirit by sticking a folded up napkin under the statue.

Humanists of Washington speak against a Pierce County budget amendment allotting taxpayer funds to the Child Evangelism Fellowship.

Paul Davies throws some cold water on the idea that the Universe is chock full of lifeforms, and says one way to make an educated guess is to determine whether life emerged on Earth on separate, independent instances:

It could be that intermingled among the seething microbes all around us are some that are so biochemically different they could be descended only from a separate origin. You couldn’t tell by looking, only by delving into their molecular innards and finding something weird enough to rule out a common precursor. The discovery of just a single “alien” microbe under our very noses would be enough to conclude that the universe was indeed teeming with life.

Of course our national anthem, coat of arms, and other national symbols and traditions are steeped in Christian and European traditions, as only these folk had the political power during this nation’s formative years. Only men could vote then as well, but it would be ridiculous to call Canada a “man’s nation.”

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Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.

Comments:

#1 SocraticGadfly (Guest) on Wednesday November 20, 2013 at 10:55am

But ... Lincoln eventually did add it. And spoke it at Gettysburg.

Folks, the version he spoke at Gettysburg had **under God.** It was not something he added after he spoke. So, Hemant Mehta’s whole analysis falls apart. Please, Lincoln was not a fully conventional Christian, but let’s not make him into some crypto-atheist. Anybody promoting stupidity like this as supposedly being a dig at the Confederacy should read Lincoln’s nuanced thoughts on religion as expressed in his Second Inaugural Address. blog.constitutioncenter DOT org/2013/06/did-abraham-lincoln-omit-god-from-the-gettysburg-address/

#2 SocraticGadfly (Guest) on Wednesday November 20, 2013 at 11:46am

Here’s the reality on Lincoln, Gettysburg and his religious beliefs.

#3 Randy (Guest) on Wednesday November 20, 2013 at 5:07pm

“... religion must not be accepted as a justification for harm done to women and girls” and men and boys and others.

Really, it’s time to stop the sexism. Harm is harm, no matter who it’s done to, and we need to stop all of it, not just some of it.

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Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center. He lives in Maine with his wife and kids. His blog at the Patheos network is iMortal, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.